Arrived.

          Taken into account the fourteen hours I lost flying, its crazy to think I was in California less than 72 hours ago.

          The fifteen hour flight to the Philippians wasn't terribly long after I took copious amounts of NyQuil. In fact, I was so doped up I barely recall that we landed in Guam to refill on fuel. In Manila, they took our passports and then in small groups escorted us up to the gates where the international flights take off. During this procedure, they handed my passport to another American and thankfully he caught it, otherwise I would probably be still stuck in the Philippians. Other than that avoided debacle, travel went quite smooth. The train that took me from the airport to my hotel in Bangkok was incredibly clean and the locals are really nice. This guy carried my bag down three flights of stairs at the train station. For fourteen dollars my hotel was quite comfortable. It had no power outlets and the bathtub had a hole in the side that drained water to other side of the bathroom, but my room had air conditioning (which is quite needed here). I met two people in Bangkok for dinner that are here at the foundation with me, one from Singapore and one from China. We had really good noodles off a street vendor for a dollar, which was a great first meal in Thailand.

          I flew to Chiang Rai this morning and arrived at the foundation this afternoon. The area is incredibly beautiful, I can't even describe it. There's probably about 50 volunteers here right now, ranging from around 18-25 years old. I've met people from all over Europe, Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, and the U.S. There's an extremely mean horse that is tied up right outside our living quarters. I went to get a glass of water and when I walked back he attacked and bit me. I was more shocked than hurt. I have an outline of his teeth on my arm and a nice bruise, but nothing serious; in fact, I find it quite hilarious. We took a walk down to find a shop (which is more like someones house they sell random stuff out of) so we could buy toilet paper. I learned that toilet paper isn't big here because their septic tanks can't handle it, so you use it and throw it away. No flushing it. Fun Fact.

I took some pictures on our walk, which I've posted below. I wanted to take pictures of the locals, but it wasn't the time with so many of us foreigners walking around. In due time.